Have you ever thought about your clothing and the effects on the earth? What if I told you that the way cotton is currently grown and harvested, it endangers lives? Conventional cotton is causing extreme concerns and here’s why.
Tons and tons of pesticides are sprayed on cotton fileds every year to eradicate a little bug known as the boll weevil. The problem with using poison to kill one bug is that it kills all the other beneficial insects that keep nature on track.
In cotton’s natural habitat, the shrub is drought-resistant. It originally grew in dry parts of the world and was able to cope with those climates. Because of our consumption of cotton, the plant has been brought into environments that it is not equipped to deal with. The result is more natural predators that the plants can’t fight. Even in the US cotton farm workers are exposed to pesticides during spraying, or shortly after. The effects translate into long-term illnesses and other effects we aren’t even aware of.
Everything about this crop that was once naturally harvested is now a contaminated product. A quarter of the world’s pesticides are used to grow cotton. In order to make cotton safer, Monsanto Corporation developed a genetically modified cottonseed that had a built in pesticide that was lethal to the boll weevil. They sold the product to farmers who were looking to save money on their crops and make a better profit. But the well-intentioned seed had the opposite effect.
One name that keeps popping up is methyl parathion. Farm workers exposed to it suffer long-term health effects. In California, which by the way is doing great things to limit carbon emissions and taking steps to clean up the air, is not doing so well when it comes to pesticides. Cotton farmers are dying because of their exposure to pesticides. 20,000 – 40,000 deaths worldwide all year are caused by pesticide poisonings. Millions suffer the effects of minor poisoning.
Leukemia in children is increased in families that used pesticides in their houses. Across the world, over 90% of people exposed to pesticides all day suffer illness. Symptoms can range from vision disorders to cell death. Chemicals sprayed by air drift. There are no government regulations set-up to protect the families, farmers or babies that live and work in adjacent areas. If a crop plane dumps a load of pesticides for one field and they get carried into the next field over and sicken or cause illness to the people there, they have no recourse. Winds carry pesticides to fields, trees and into the water we all drink from. Read on»
Especially interesting from a marketing point of view, here is a short summary of the recent Dove –> Greenpeace –> Backlash –> Social Change chain-of-events.
First: Dove, in an ongoing move to position itself as a “positive body image” brand in a beauty-focused industry, created an ad. The spot, titled “Onslaught,” powerfully illustrates the way media images in culture bombard women from a young age resulting in unrealistic perceptions of beauty.
Then: Greenpeace saw a chance to loudly call ‘foul.’ They created an “Onslaught” parody ad depicting the destruction of Indonesian rainforests for palm oil, a key ingredient in Dove (and many other company’s) products. This segment, which swaps a cute, dark-haired (presumably Indonesian) girl for the cute, red-haired one from the Dove original, is titled “Onslaught(er).”
Within a week: “Onslaught(er)” was viewed over 250,000 times after being posted on Youtube. Perhaps speaking to the power and quality of the ad, response was strong.
Today: The Wall Street Journal reports that Unilever, the parent company that owns and operates Dove, has pledged to only buy palm oil from suppliers able to prove they haven’t cut down forests.
While it’s fantastic that Dove is changing its ways, many companies use palm oil in their products. The assumption is that at least some (maybe a majority) are getting it from forest-destroying suppliers. So while it doesn’t provide the full picture when Greenpeace singles out Dove as a target, it is amazing to stand back and watch a campaign like this work so quickly and effectively.
How many of you drink from a Nalgene bottle?What’s the number within the triangle on the bottom?If you’ve got the wrong number down there you may be putting yourself at risk.
You’ve probably seen something in the news lately that some plastics are getting a lot of negative press; most notably, drinking bottles made with hard plastic. This all surrounds a chemical known as Bisphenol A to the chemists and engineers or “BPA” on the streets.This chemical has been shown to leach out of common plastics and cause health issues ranging from behavioral issues to irregular breast growth.
What can we do about it? Be aware that the Nalgene that most of us are drinking out of is probably contributing to our BPA intake.Also know is that not all Nalgenes are created equal.The hard polycarbonate plastics are what we want to stay away from (#7 on the bottom).The soft cloudy plastic Nalgenes (#2 in the bottom) are considered to be the safest and you’ll be happy to know that in light of the elevated attention to BPAs Nalgene is discontinuing production on their polycarbonate bottles.
BPAs are found in more places than water bottles though. Food cans, baby bottles and the fillings in our teeth also contribute to BPAs in our body.Check out the resources below for more information.
Not having come from a farming background, I’d never heard of Monsanto. So, though this is old news for many, I only took notice last week when it popped up literally side-by-side in my reading material. On one side, Vanity Fair. On the other, Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. Monsanto appeared in both.
Why the fuss? Monsanto wants to own the entire world’s food supply. Does that sound almost cartoonishly evil? Well. Does it sound overly reductive? I’m afraid it’s not.
If you saw last year’s Clooney heavy-hitter Michael Clayton, you’ll remember the fictional bad-guy agri-giant U-North, accused in the film of selling GM seeds that cause cancer. Do a quick Google search for “Michael Clayton Monsanto” to see just how many immediately recognized the thinly-veiled connection.
Kingsolver discusses the dangers of a company like Monsanto eliminating seed variety and choice from an evolutionary standpoint — the less varied our crops are genetically, the more we endanger ourselves. She references the Irish potato famine. I’ve got a better example that’s a bit closer to home: our current, much-publicized World Food Crisis. Monsanto, and a few others like them, have supplied GM seeds to struggling farmers in developing countries in order to induce dependency and cut out any notion of sustainability. Now that the addicts are going into withdrawal, Monsanto steps in like a street corner dealer with the fix. But the solution is the problem.
Monsanto has helped create a crisis. Does it seem silly that anyone would celebrate Monsanto as the savior of a disaster it set up in the first place? No matter. It seems to have paid off.
What do DUMBO, Wal-Mart, and Park Road Baptist Church have in common?
They have all tapped into the potential of RENEWAL, the new documentary on the religious-environmental movement, to effectively organize and motivate groups and individuals around the increasingly important issue of environmental stewardship. You can see our previous articles on THE RENEWAL PROJECT here and here.
DUMBO, a neighborhood improvement district in Brooklyn, NY, is screening RENEWAL to promote five environmental initiates in the community: public recycling, alternative modes of transportation, consumption reduction, greater energy efficiency and environmental education. Wal-Mart is using segments of RENEWAL in training sessions with store managers to help them develop Personal Sustainability Programs that they will then share with their colleagues. I know, I can’t believe I’m actually posting something positive about Wal-Mart. And Park Road Baptist church developed a four-week-long, intergenerational Sunday school class using two segments of RENEWAL each week.
These are just a few of the exciting stories emerging from the RENEWAL Circle, a group of early users and adapters of the film. You can read more about them and many others at www.renewalproject.net/members. If you haven’t already, you can purchase the film there as well. Hopefully, the stories from the RENEWAL Circle will inspire you to conduct similar events or to create new ones of your own. Either way, please log in at www.renewalproject.ning.com to share your own stories and to connect with RENEWAL audiences around the world.
Expressing your green love towards friends and family can sometimes be a daunting task. But becoming an ambassador for living green is as easy as playing host for the night and planning accordingly. Here are three ideas to try out the next time you’re planning for the weekend.
1. Green Swap Party
We all have stuff we don’t use right? We’ll if you haven’t had the chance to sign up for an account on Gigoit.org (see article here), then this solution is for you. Ask your friends to bring over clothes, dishes, CDs, books, movies - anything really. When everyone arrives, set all the items out and let your friends pick what they want to take home. It’s simple, effective and guaranteed to be remembered as a unique night.
2. Keepin’ It Local Potluck
Inspired by the Locavores at www.locavores.com, we’re encouraging our readers to host a “locavore” potluck. The locavores are a group of people that make an effort to eat only foods grown or harvested within a 100-mile radius of San Francisco. Explain this concept to your friends, invite them over for the potluck and enjoying learning about the multitude of places people went to gather their dishes. If the potluck is a success, make it a monthly gathering to encourage people to keep things local.
3. Movie With a Message
If you’re like me, bars and clubs just don’t do the trick. My fiancée and I simple enjoy watching movies and hanging out with friends at coffee shops. So the next time you plan to watch a movie with another couple, make it a movie with meaning. Rent “An Inconvenient Truth,” “Who Killed the Electric Car,” “Blue Vinyl,” “Renewal,” or “Erin Brockovich.” If your friends aren’t down with documentaries… just pop it in and hit play - it’s bound to make them think in more ways than one. Plus, it’s always a good idea to switch up your normal movie watching routine.
Thanks to KGG contributor Alex Dow for an open, honest account of his meat-free week. My open, honest admission? I love meat, and that love is fiercely loyal.
For now, I’m sticking to my bone-gnawin’ guns. Even so, Alex’s food diary encourages me to do as he did and think about the consequences of consumption.
This builds on the lessons I’ve been gleaning from Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle — a remarkably clear-eyed treatise on food ably disguised as a winsome family memoir.
So far, I’ve learned to shudder at the thought of ever again buying fruit and vegetables off-season. I’m cultivating a farmers’ appreciation of the ominous Dark Storm Cloud. And I’m finding a whole bunch of ways to connect with my food by buying locally.
LINK IT UP! (from animalvegetablemineral.com)
LocalHarvest: “The best organic food is what’s grown closest to you. Use our website to find farmers’ markets, family farms, and other sources of sustainably grown food in your area…”
New Farm’s Farm Locator: “Consumer Search links you to farms selling directly to consumers…”
Farmers’ Market: “Farmers markets allow consumers to have access to locally grown, farm fresh produce, enables farmers the opportunity to develop a personal relationship with their customers, and cultivate consumer loyalty with the farmers who grows the produce…”
This final installment has been tough to write.What more is there to say?Outside of a couple brief moments of burger cravings the final days went really well.I stuck with my basic vegetarian diet and in the end it wasn’t too difficult.The toughest part for me wasn’t pulling myself away from a steak, but simply remembering that I was committed to a vegetarian diet.
Has the experiment changed me?The experiment has certainly changed me for the better.My eyes have been opened up to the health and enjoyment of a vegetarian diet.There is a freedom and creativity present in a vegetarian diet that I never experienced as an omnivore.I also feel that I had a little bit more energy as a vegetarian and that I more easily avoided the feelings of lethargy associated with overeating.On top of all of this there is the benefit to the planet.
Has the experiment changed me into a champion of vegetarianism?Yes and no.I’ve definitely reached the conclusion that vegetarianism is an excellent way of life; a much more symbiotic relationship between the planet and the people on the planet.The less we rely on the factory farmed production of animals, the more harmonious the planet becomes.That harmony comes back to us.However I’m still not convinced that all meat is created equal or that it is all bad.
Certainly we need to strike a better balance with our consumption of meat, beef in particular, and our consumption of vegetarian diet.I’m at a point now where I think it is okay to eat a little bit of responsibly farmed meat every now and then.I’m considering buying a butchered bison from a local organic farmer with my good friend Sonny.
I suppose that in the end my perspective towards diet have changed through the experiment.I think my outlook correlates best with what Michael Pollan said in his book In Defense of Food: an Eater’s Manifesto: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”
Say you’ve been spending time with this girl. Casually, you know? Not purposefully; almost by accident. Maybe you work together. Maybe you know the same people. You trade quips at parties, standing near the punch. You bump into her at the library browsing young adult fiction.
At any rate, if her name came up in conversation, you’d have something nice to say. A little story to tell, or just a brief nod of recognition. Yeah, I know her. Seems cool.
Until.
Until one day, it hits you. When it does, it hits hard. A look. A glance. For no reason at all. You know what I mean? Love can be a funny thing.
From Vanity Fair’s annual green issue, a fascinating look at a designer influencing the influencers — his high-profile projects include a green roof covered in native grasses for The GAP in San Bruno, Nike’s energy-effective European headquarters, and a new project with Google that’s looking big.
Mr. McDonough co-authored the groundbreaking manifesto “Cradle-to-Cradle” with a German chemist, Michael Braungart. Mr. McDonough relates an “a-ha!” moment he had one of the first times he discussed some of his ideas with Mr. Braungart amidst a flurry of diagramming and chart-drawing. Thank goodness one of Mr. McDonough’s gifts is a knack for taking the technical and showing it to us in a way that helps us say “a-ha!” ourselves.
“Being less bad is not being good. To be efficient is the same as being less bad.”
